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Pipistrello, Covering Games, and the Price of Passion
53 Plays30 days ago
In this week's episode of Unqualified Game Chat, Spencer and I dive deep into our shared passion for weird and wonderful physical PlayStation games. I show off four recent pickups, from the speculative buy of Expedition 33 to the nostalgia-fueled Grandia 3, and we chat about the legacy of cult publisher Agetec and their early support of FromSoftware. We also discuss prepping for events like Summer Games Fest, our evolving thoughts on AI in game development, and the ethical tightrope of game coverage. Plus, I share early impressions of Pipistrello and the Cursed Yo-Yo, a rad little Yo-Yovania I can’t stop playing. It’s a chill, reflective episode that reminds me why I love doing this show. Also, Spencer’s shirt has Sonic on it. Iconic.
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Transcript
Introductions and Unplanned Matching
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 115 of Unqualified Game Chat. I'm your host, Azara Lopez, and with me today is, we didn't plan to both be wearing white shirts.
00:00:34
Speaker
That's true. But Spencer, the legacy. My shirt has Sonic on it. Well, you're to be. Like real grown up. Yeah, with those chili dogs. Chili dogs, yeah.
Uniqlo Tees Discussion
00:00:44
Speaker
It's from the Yeti.
00:00:45
Speaker
I don't know why i don't know why you have to one-up me every time. No, your shirt's nice, too. It's a Uniqlo white shirt. See? Uniqlo, that's nice. Oh, okay.
00:00:57
Speaker
That's nice. Their graphic tees are always pretty fire. They are. I will say, their collaborations... There's like 10 shirts that you can get, but there's only really like one or two good ones from collaboration.
00:01:10
Speaker
And you'll know which one it is when you go there. Yeah, when you see it, you're like, oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that one's sold out yeah of every size except for 4X or something. And all the other ones are are available.
00:01:22
Speaker
That's how you know. Exactly. That's how you know. ah Spencer, I'm getting really good at this, but this is a podcast that's recorded every week and posted to Patreon.
Podcast Schedule and Delays
00:01:35
Speaker
Sorry, my dog decides to come. I was going to remind you. I'm impressed you did it. yeah um And hi. Hi. Okay. Are we done now?
00:01:48
Speaker
Okay. Go somewhere. Go. Go outside. I don't care what you do. Go. Special guest appearance from friend of the show. Riley. just Riley. Make it all about him. um This podcast is posted every week to Patreon on Thursdays.
00:02:05
Speaker
Last week, I think I got up on Saturday. Sorry, there's a lot of there's a lot of pat post-pac stuff that was taking all my time. um But i will I will get this up on Thursday because it also posts a week later on YouTube where you can watch it for free.
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, real money. and But you'll be a week late. Still, put your comments down. Wherever you watch it, put your comments down. We'll see them and we'll address them.
00:02:32
Speaker
And if you want to support the show, support us on Patreon. um Lowest tier. Everything helps. It's just something we do as an incentive for those who want to help us out.
00:02:43
Speaker
Anyway,
Recent PlayStation Purchases
00:02:44
Speaker
on to the show. Since I wanted to start off, ah I buy a lot of video games. You do. It's always interesting to see which ones. I'm hoping you have something interesting to tell us today.
00:02:55
Speaker
i we haven't done this in a while, but yeah I've been um been buying some video games lately. and um Yeah, I will just share them with you. And spen and for the for the viewers ah and listeners, Spencer does not know.
00:03:08
Speaker
i don't. This is all new to me. All new. um this a all of There's four games. They're all PlayStation games. then So the first game is a new one.
00:03:23
Speaker
Wow. I got Expedition 33. Now, I have it digitally, and I have not opened this copy, because I saw those ah i saw the physicals getting kind of rare. Oh, I see. a speculative buy.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yes, I said, not today. Not today, Satan. I will not spend more than $50 on a $50 game. I will have it today in physical copy edition. And also that extra money doesn't go to the developer. they They've already made their money off of this.
00:03:53
Speaker
That's how it works out there in the biz where the the company buys ah at all like allocated distribution of physical disks from the distributor.
00:04:09
Speaker
They go out and then you can buy more if you want, but you still have to hit that threshold. And if you don't think that you're going to hit that threshold with sales, you probably don't buy a second batch.
00:04:21
Speaker
um And then you can have like Video Games Plus from Canada sometimes steps in to them to to fund some re reprints. But yeah, I got this just in case.
00:04:36
Speaker
Just in case.
Grandia 3 Memories
00:04:37
Speaker
Intriguing. Next up, we're going to go to PS2.
00:04:43
Speaker
Bought Grandia 3. Huh. oh Interesting. why Why? What drove you to grab this one? Well, I don't have, I didn't have it.
00:04:54
Speaker
I did. i used to have it. um Someone stole it from me. think it was one of my ex's friends. and An early ex, like a 20 in my and my twenty s the worst but the The more worst batch of exes happened in my 20s.
00:05:10
Speaker
Oh, I see And one of them, not her specifically, but one of her little friends got their little sticky, their little early 20-year-old stick hands in my games. Crept in and plucked You know what? I didn't like that copy because it had water damage.
00:05:27
Speaker
Oh, who really won that thing? yeah, know what else you know you so they fucking stole from me? ah My Metal Gear. ah Well, that that because I did get it back.
00:05:40
Speaker
But ah by worse than that, Metal Gear, ah the the ah collection on PS3. What is it? Oh, the legacy collection. Legacy collection.
00:05:51
Speaker
And will say that I also won one up to them with that because I found it at a GameStop with the um the art book, which I didn't have before.
00:06:02
Speaker
So jokes on you. li Both times you came out on top. Little, little thief. Anyway, I'll complete. Very nice. I don't remember playing this game much as a kid.
00:06:14
Speaker
It reminded me too much of Dark Cloud. And it was like, it was too soon after I played Dark Cloud. And I was like ah like, I don't know about these dungeons. The Dark Cloud dungeons are pretty. there They're pretty dumb.
00:06:27
Speaker
yeah i They're just like little caves or they they suck. They really suck. um Dark Cloud 2 is really good. um Anyway, Grandia 3.
00:06:40
Speaker
um Next two games are just games that I saw. Whoa. So anything that I see age tech, I will buy um because I love them so much.
00:06:52
Speaker
um So fighter maker two. which looks like a Rio from Shenmue. It looks like a Tom Cruise meets. Yeah, definitely Shenmue. Shenmue. Yes, that is ah his kick. And they put like Tom Cruise's face on. Yeah, it's Tom Cruise in the Shenmue movie.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. i That's exactly what. My father's killer. Yeah, that's exactly. Now program me to be the ultimate fighter. Have you seen Landy?
H-Tech Localization
00:07:28
Speaker
Um, so, so, okay. So when H tech first started, uh, releasing games, they, they were published, they were one of the first publishers to like publish games from Japan on PlayStation, but they didn't know how to name the games. They didn't, they barely knew how to localize them.
00:07:46
Speaker
And so they had their first run of collection. You'll see. They have like just the name of what the game is. So this is shooters space shooter, but that's not,
00:07:58
Speaker
That's not exactly what the name of the game is. It is that, but I don't know what the Japanese name is. I'll show you another example.
00:08:11
Speaker
What's he going to pull out audience for the audio listeners? He is retreated to his shelf and he is searching for a title. He's found it.
00:08:24
Speaker
He's searching for another. um Okay, so another one they did was Battle Hunter, right? It's just Battle Hunter. They also have board game, and they also have another... I can't find it up there, but it's so I have it.
00:08:39
Speaker
um Yeah, so their first run has like these huge prints at the top and just really in really cool like like, oh, Japanese games aren't very popular in the West.
00:08:55
Speaker
and How do we how do we market this game in the West right away? Because they're not going to they're not going to buy Jin Jin Chu plus love. I don't know, Max, whatever. At the time that was not going to sell. People weren't like, oh when is this going to come West? They didn't know what it was.
00:09:16
Speaker
So this is this is a ah tactile RPG, and but this this one is just a space shooter. And it's cool. did ah also they also were the first to publish like RPG Maker games that's where in the West. And that's where... um Fighter Maker 2. Fighter Maker 2.
00:09:36
Speaker
fire maker two comes in is it's all based off of like a game maker, uh, style stuff. So age tech as a publisher, they were also the only publisher in the West that believed in like from software.
00:09:49
Speaker
Um, so like all, all armored core, all early PS two is from software games like that, those shitty, like RPG first person games that they put out.
H-Tech's Impact on Japanese Games
00:10:01
Speaker
Um, I mean, people like them. I, they gave me motion sickness, but, um, Yeah, they're all they're all published by H-Tech. And the president of H-Tech now works for Bandai Namco. So you could probably ah connect those dots on why Bandai Namco still publishes ah from software games. Yeah.
00:10:23
Speaker
it all stand it all It all comes back together. But I love H-Tech. I think H-Tech is the greatest, coolest publisher out there. And if you see that H-Tech seal of approval, you might be spending you have be spending anywhere between $10 and Because i think they do shit like Echo Beyond, which is like four hundred dollars now um but ah they have yeah so they have a couple They have a couple like they did that Kuan game. That's like the most expensive PS2 game that did Kuan.
00:10:54
Speaker
um But yeah, great publisher. one of my favorites. I want to do like a whole retrospective on them, to be honest. That'd be cool. Like once I have the time, I think I have enough games for sure by them.
00:11:05
Speaker
um But. That is so much random information, and I think. I can get access to the old age tech president. I couldn't, I couldn't years ago when I tried because no one listened to little Zario, little Mr. Scoops on the beat. from GameCouch and I'd to interview you. I just got my degree and I i really want to write about this.
00:11:31
Speaker
a goofy back then yeah yeah i that's i voice switch ah if i had another chance i wouldn't i wouldn't go with goofy but i you know what i don't like them sticking with it i like it um So that's those are the the games I
Summer Games Fest Planning
00:11:50
Speaker
played. um Now for what's coming up, we have Summer Games Fest.
00:11:55
Speaker
I think it's next week. Is that right? think it's a week later. Oh, thank God. Oh, thank God. Yeah. Two weeks. um So we touched on it last week, but Spencer's not going to attend this.
00:12:09
Speaker
I can't attend. yeah the he They said he's too dangerous. They gave him, they said his fist of fury. no not not in this.
00:12:19
Speaker
but so Those are... those are incredible They've been honed by every martial arts master in the world yeah to play games better than anyone. Yeah, they couldn't sign off on that. They couldn't.
00:12:30
Speaker
America wouldn't, really. it's it's a it's an It's an ego thing for us. Yeah, they'd stop and say, wait a minute, you're that gamer. Hold on. Not today. Not today. um maybe But hopefully Pax. So we'll get him in some bits with Mark and I. And we'll definitely have a lot of fun there with the Monster Vine crew.
00:12:54
Speaker
um As for me, i want I'm curious, how do you, when you're booking events like this, how do you start it? What's your workflow? what's your workflow um First comes the whole, you know, you book the things you really want to see first because you're like Digimon and stuff like that where you're like, I got to see those.
00:13:16
Speaker
And then you book the things that youre that you find interesting that you don't know about. And then sometimes I prep. um So like I'll read up on it or I'll play other games by the company or whatever.
00:13:33
Speaker
if there's time just to, uh, to know what I'm going in, especially if there's an interview component, it's good to be prepped. Um, yeah, then i then I essentially just get ready to to go since I'm in Canada. It's a bit of a longer trek. Ooh, that's true. It's not like me where I can get away with day trip stuff or like yeah no that's a two hour flights somewhere.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah. Everything's like, I think it's pretty much always four hours or more to fly. Um, And then you know once you're there, you you have all the things that you packed. You have your your charger bank for your phone. You got your little snackies or protein bars or whatever you need to to stay ah stay afloat while you're while you're over there.
00:14:20
Speaker
ah You got some cash to get drinks for because you're going to get thirsty. And Canadian debit cards don't work so good when you try and ah buy a drink with them.
00:14:31
Speaker
That's what that's what our what our staff writer, Mike, that's the issue that he ran into yeah last year in Seattle with us. He's he's a Canadian locale as well.
00:14:42
Speaker
Yeah. So you got to be you got to have some cash or you have to be like, hey, Bosky, please buy me a drink. I'm thirsty. I'm really, really thirsty. I'm really thirsty. I'm so thirsty. I can't talk good. I've been talking on his shirt. tell Please, please, I'm thirsty.
00:15:00
Speaker
um I definitely agree.
Event Preparedness Tips
00:15:05
Speaker
you You got to get ahead of like, I've been ah taking around um like lip balm or like chapstick chapstick because my lips strip will dry out super fast, um especially when we're doing interviews and talking a lot. And I'm a talker.
00:15:24
Speaker
Yeah. I can talk. i can talk about anything. Azario can yap when he needs to. Oh, I'll yap. I'll yap all day. I'll yeah i'll yeah i'll get i'll make i'll take the conversation to the weirdest or the most wholesome place you want to go.
00:15:39
Speaker
whatever Whatever you want to do, let's do it. Azario's open anything. I, uh, yeah. Yes. Yes, I am.
00:15:50
Speaker
Yes, I'm very open individual. Um, but I've been doing really good with the chapstick and I've, uh, I have Dr. Scholl's in my, my shoes. That's good.
00:16:03
Speaker
Uh, good. We're getting older. Yeah. It's definitely turned a lot into like a fashion game nowadays too. A lot of people are like, wearing brands and stuff out there now. i try not to get too into the weeds and all that.
00:16:17
Speaker
i think i think that year that I was single, i was doing it. was buying a lot of weird shit. Just like I was like polos that like press events and stuff just to be like, I'll be different. You I'll be the polo guy. It didn't catch on. It didn't catch on. It was a nice polo dude. Yeah.
00:16:39
Speaker
Dude, noticed you're wearing a polo. Hell yeah, brother. Rock on. Something different than the fucking flannel unbuttoned yeah fucking on the unundted flannel look is just this get a little little much for me.
00:16:53
Speaker
um But... ah i i I think my least favorite part about event planning is booking the schedule.
00:17:04
Speaker
um It is stressful to be like, okay, one when is this open? When is this open? one is And then being like, where are they? is this in a different hall? is this oh yeah yeah nearby? i Will I have the 10 minutes to to cross quickly?
00:17:19
Speaker
it's it can be a nightmare. I think... um
00:17:25
Speaker
E3 was good for this because you could get away with booking things back to back because you, you can just end meetings like five minutes, seven minutes early if you wanted to, and just be like, Oh, I'm done.
00:17:39
Speaker
And, and take off. Now the publisher will probably want you to stay, but yeah you you can probably sneak out early if you, if you have to. oh That's the, but that's the thing about these events is like,
00:17:53
Speaker
they know you're there. So you can't really get away from like, once they have their time, that's their time. And you get better at managing that. I think, um, I think understanding,
00:18:09
Speaker
Like everyone's going to treat you like you're a million bucks, whether, whether you have ah hundred followers or a thousand followers, you know, type of thing. Everyone's really nice to you.
00:18:22
Speaker
And I think that's the best part about these events is like, you can just be starting out. And once you get in, it's like, fuck yeah, I've been I've been working my ass off for this. And then you get in,
00:18:37
Speaker
And I can't, I would, I will say that everyone is just really nice. Everybody is everyone that works and and you'll, you'll meet some assholes here and there, but also you got to empathize that they're doing a job.
00:18:51
Speaker
They're getting paid to be there. um And it's tiring. It might be yeah just drained depending on like when you're meeting them, they might've had like a difficult appointment and then now they're tired and you never know what's going on.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's a if it's a weird it's a weird thing, too, because, like, everyone, whenever you meet, wouldn't it there's all these rumors in the game industry, and we all work in these silos where a lot of it is just, like, whatever we see on the internet, but we don't really engage ourselves, but we see it exists.
00:19:24
Speaker
And a lot of people do this where when we go to these events, they have, like, a list of, like, things they want to get down to the bottom of. So they'll be like right at the end of the meeting. Hey, what happened with X, Y? You know, they'll like try to get the T. The last question is the one that would end the interview.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah. I have like five, three fucking minutes to like talk shop with you. Yeah. yeah But those that's when i that's when I'm mostly gabbing around. i'll i'll If they get me talking about stuff and about business stuff,
00:19:56
Speaker
They can probably keep me around for another 10, 15 minutes for sure. I get excited talking about that stuff, though. like Yeah, wait it's fun. it's you it's like Any conversation is fun in that environment, like in these appointments, because everyone's pretty hyped to be there, or at least like they're excited to show you their game or whatever.
00:20:15
Speaker
and then So they're very open to conversations. You're both... just like you're typically in close proximity. ah and if it's like the last question you've gone through the game and you've shown your interest and you've had a good chat.
00:20:27
Speaker
So then it's like, Oh, like let's just talk casually. It's a very, very welcoming, nice environment for that kind of thing. Yeah. Have you ever previewed a game that you didn't like? Hmm.
Importance of Feedback at Indie Events
00:20:41
Speaker
Probably. Yeah. Yeah. I think I have. Um, Yeah. At which point I'm like, oh, these things concern me, but these things were interesting.
00:20:52
Speaker
don't know. like Because you never want to just be like, this is shit. Because you don't want to be like mean, but you want to be objective about it in some way, or at least give your honest opinion. so I have been trying to get better at giving feedback, like at events like the mix and like just indie events and stuff.
00:21:13
Speaker
Um, because I think we touched on it last episode, but the like student developer is like a pretty real thing. And I think that like, even though they're, they're making their first game and it's, and it's doing well, I think yeah they're as much as in a silo as we are, you know? And like,
00:21:33
Speaker
Like there was a puzzle game and I was like, Hey, just a stupid mechanic. That'll, that'll make this really good. Just make this right trigger zoom in. It doesn't do anything, but zooms in on the, whatever the players it's a first person thing.
00:21:47
Speaker
And he, and he was like, why? And I was like, it's for the ADHD players, man. Like they'll play and they'll want to do something while they're just walking around. They'll want to click something. They'll want to, Like jumping a lot in the game or like, are you roll, dodge, rolling. are you're not You're not playing for speed run strats or anything like that. You're just doing something.
00:22:06
Speaker
yeah You just get from point A to point B. You're just trying to do something. And I think puzzle games, um, really, uh, like the extra shit is just as important as the puzzle itself, I think, because puzzles are exhausting.
00:22:22
Speaker
And whether that's visual where you're giving players something to look at um or narrative where you're giving them something to collect, If you don't, if you don't, whatever, whatever path you choose, there's there's going to be downtime.
00:22:36
Speaker
And I think allowing them to like throw a ball against a wall is like, fuck yeah. Like, yeah, stuff like a tiny little thing that'll get the like, and make that part of your brain happy.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, but who knows? like Maybe me saying that like the whole breaks the whole fucking game for them. Oh, the zoom-in feature brought up all these titles. we lost lots of development time because of the zoom-in feature.
00:23:00
Speaker
you Now you can see through walls and clip through this I feel bad. um Yeah, but I've been getting better at delivering that live feedback. It's good. Mostly because i i don't I don't know if this is technically a bad thing.
00:23:17
Speaker
It's not a great thing, but I've been thinking about where I personally lie in my coverage, and I am i i think I suck the dick of the developer a little too much. in Oh, why is that?
00:23:34
Speaker
I just feel like I'm very pro developer.
Pro-Developer Stance
00:23:38
Speaker
I think I care so much about the sacrifices that they're probably making on the day to day to just make something fun for anybody.
00:23:47
Speaker
yeah like when When people talk shit on Assassin's Creed Ubisoft, it fucking bums me out. like Not because the game, if the game sucks, the game sucks. But then like you start attacking the developer and it just, yeah that's when it's never a good look.
00:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. I, it's like you once you like, I don't know. i I'm not on the, I'm not on the side of the publisher. I'm talking I'm on the developer side. publishers Publishers are fine.
00:24:20
Speaker
but um But what hurts me is I'm not even on the side of develop are the writers all the time. So a journalist can write an opinion piece that's like saying bad things about a developing company. And I'm just like, I guess.
00:24:36
Speaker
Like if it's if they're not like killing people or like, i just don't think that people should get. Yeah. dr drug through the mud for for being an asshole.
00:24:49
Speaker
And i think I think there's a few voices, few developer voices that are going around right now that are... Their only backlash is that they were an asshole to the wrong person.
00:25:01
Speaker
and And that snowball... Yeah. Yeah. um
00:25:10
Speaker
Yeah, I that's that's the the. I
00:25:18
Speaker
don't know the the the the theme of. My coverage is I want to see the silver lining in developers because I lift them up.
00:25:30
Speaker
Yeah, or show a side of them that's not normally seen, but it also clouds my judgment on forming those opinionated pieces on them because I'm so so busy ah making excuses for their actions in my head that it sometimes hurts the hurts ah potential story development or potential me delivering a certain put piece of feedback at a specific time.
00:26:01
Speaker
I don't know. it's It's my own struggle, I guess, but I'm constantly re-looking at um how I cover games. And that's just another thing I realized about myself is that I'm veryro very pro, very pro developer.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yeah. I lean more towards positive as well. I can find fun in like a lot of games that are janky or like messed up or not great, but Yeah, ah it's it's challenging because you don't want to come off like yourre like you're like, no, I like everything and and I'm not critical.
00:26:38
Speaker
But I don't know. At the same time, there is that balance of like, oh, I can see the effort that went into this compared with like an asset swap or asset flip game or like something like that. So yeah, it can be.
00:26:54
Speaker
it's essential yeah I would say we're similar in that in terms of like being a bit more positive maybe than most, but I don't think that's an inherently bad thing.
00:27:05
Speaker
think it's especially when the slant seems to go the other way for the most part. That's how I justify it is that there's there's a so there's way better voices and way more well-fledged framed minds out there on the issues that plague the game industry that I just don't have capacity for when I'm constantly just trying to learn new games and move on and move on and move on and learn new games. And um so, yeah yeah, it's I guess it's a balance.
00:27:37
Speaker
Something something I've been that's been on on my mind. I just I can only imagine, man, just like spending like 10 years ten years working on something as a solo dev for some of these things. And just like, i don't know.
Creature Keeper Review
00:27:53
Speaker
That's a lot of time. That is a lot of time. That's like, like 2015 to now.
00:27:58
Speaker
That's thats yeah Holy. That creature keeper game that came out this month, 13 years. 13 years. Holy. By one guy. And was crowdfunded back in 2020 or something like that, or 2019 or something.
00:28:14
Speaker
crowdfunded back in like twenty twenty or something like that um ah twenty nineteen or something But um it's really good, and I gave it a 9 out of 10. um and And there's bugs, but I gave it a 9 out of 10 because I know that the guy is going to fix all the bugs. like Like, it's a $10 game, and the game loop is so smart, and I was having so much fun.
00:28:44
Speaker
I got to the end of the game and everything, and it's like,
00:28:48
Speaker
I can't possibly give this lower than a nine. Yeah. Like there's so, there's so much smart, um, systems going on here. It's like an action RPG, like East in a way, um, where certain weapons hit enemies, but the creature aspect is not like Pokemon where all you have to do is really feed ah monster and you get to capture it.
00:29:10
Speaker
Um, But the idea is that you're capturing these monsters and you're unlocking sketches of them in this book, this beastry book. And through that beastry book, your stats are going up.
00:29:23
Speaker
and so And that, compared with like this really dark and heavy narrative,
00:29:32
Speaker
doesn't really go into fantasy. Doesn't... doesn't Really cool. Really cool. and Sometimes you hit a game like that, we were like, Yeah, there's things in it that could be improved, but like what's strong is so strong that they pale in comparison. Yeah, and for $10, dude. Yeah, that's a good price.
00:29:53
Speaker
Who the fuck? like i know i had I had way too much fun to get But that's what I'm saying is like, if I was more pro gamer, I would say this game's a five out of 10 needs to fix all these bugs and I need that needs to fix all of these issues.
00:30:13
Speaker
And I'm like, don't I in my head, it's like, no, like, that's not how I want to approach yeah so how hes the game. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:24
Speaker
But definitely a balance. Are you playing anything? Not really. i ah um finally like i haven't had a lot of time. with we We got a new puppy. and Oh, congrats.
00:30:37
Speaker
He's got a lot of energy, and he requires twenty four seven supervision. But ah I've snuck away a little just to like I played a little Fortnite, like a Zoomer. Easy.
00:30:51
Speaker
Because you can get Emperor Palpatine this season. Yeah, you need him. I'd eat Emperor Palpatine. Because I'm a Star Wars nerd. But yeah, so a little bit of that. and then ah What are your thoughts on the AI Darth Vader?
00:31:06
Speaker
I discovered it by accident. I didn't know about it. And I like defeated Darth Vader. And then he was like, talking to your microphone. And I was like, what the fuck is going on? So i start the first time I did it, I was just like...
00:31:20
Speaker
oh, it's probably like just like no Star Wars stuff. So I asked about like some obscure Jedi, and he answered perfectly, and I was like, this is weird. So I asked about non-canon stuff, and then he answered perfectly, and I was like, this is really weird. And then I started asking about not Star Wars. So I was like, oh, tell me about the Homer Simpson. oh ah tell me about...
00:31:39
Speaker
ah Monster Vine and he would be like Homer Simpson is an oafish buffoon. Is that who you want to be like? They'd be like Monster Vine? I don't know what that is but does it benefit the Empire?
00:31:51
Speaker
God didn't say like Ace Bonanza and like very weird. it's It's very scary is what I'll say. It's very frightening. You have asked you should ask about the sandlot because that's james james earl jones best movie that would have been good that's a good idea next time you're like tell me about mufasa yeah i'll tell you all about i want to know about about his time playing baseball tell me about your when you're playing baseball tell me about when you were a lion and be like i would love to i'm like what was like when you were on fraser and he's like well i was a blind guy and
00:32:25
Speaker
um rest in peace what what a what a legend treasure um honestly dude i don't know how he survived so long good on good for him good for him kicking it killing it he had the he had the most iconic voice and uh His family signed off on the AI thing. saw.
00:32:47
Speaker
I don't know if it's my place to be like, well, it's still it is still kind of weird. It's still a little strange, but ah it's interesting, but scary.
00:32:59
Speaker
Anime Expo tweeted out um they're having a voice actor panel, but the image that they used was an AI-generated image. Oh, no. like really bad. Like the fingers were just on full display. Usually they try to hide. Yeah. Usually try to hide the hands, but full display and they didn't take it down. They stood, they stood on business and they're like, they're like, no, I'm go going to say this my whole chest. Um, uh, they're, they're people are trying to break. People are trying to blacklist any voice actors on that panel, I guess is the consensus now, um, kind of a bad move.
00:33:40
Speaker
on anime exos part who oh the thing like like when when when i when the conversation of ai comes up now is it like if the person signs off on it, is that, ah does that make it okay? Like, yeah so now that's a, that's a crossroads that I'm like trying to like where, because, ah I use it for my day job, you know, it's like, i
00:34:15
Speaker
I can't, I can't really like, I don't know. I don't know where to draw the light, I guess. is It's weird. It's tough because it's evolving so fast that it's like yeah we can't get a handle on what's ethical and what isn't yeah like quick enough because there's new stuff. like I didn't know we were far enough for...
00:34:36
Speaker
Darth Vader do you talk to who answers all your questions and James Earl joins. didn't know we were there. That's crazy. It's only going to get more so too. It's only going to get more advanced. It's only going to become more ah volatile.
00:34:50
Speaker
It's only going to become easy. i I think that the best way that I can think of to even use something like this is maybe an artist uses it for inspiration. editor, writer, anybody...
00:35:09
Speaker
maybe editor a writer anybody uses it as a skeleton to then get the mind working and and being creative.
00:35:20
Speaker
Maybe they're developing something rather than is the whole thing. Yeah. Maybe they're developing something and hit a developer roadblock. Um, and learned learned how to do it from ChatGPT.
00:35:34
Speaker
i think it's going to be individual ethics, but I'm having a tough time in this industry, and maybe you are too, is do we cover the games that even have that AI like Yeah, that is tough. You're seeing more of that.
00:35:51
Speaker
We've covered them too. And... Switch eShop is just all AI slop. People on the ah our Twitters will call us out pretty quickly.
00:36:02
Speaker
Like, if it if it's used a if it uses AI. So that's where I'm like, do you guys want us to cover it or not? Like, I don't know where people stand. We'll see. We'll see. Because it's if you think for a second you're not going to see...
00:36:17
Speaker
EA or Square try to utilize this to bring down their costs of game development? Oh, I'm sure they already are. sure they're already trying They already are. Yeah.
00:36:31
Speaker
yeah Well, have you been playing? Oh, shit. um Oh, I can say this.
Game Preview and Excitement
00:36:36
Speaker
i'm playing I've been playing Pipistrello in the Cursed Yo-Yo. um It comes out next week.
00:36:42
Speaker
um If you can tell anything from even one look at this game, it's probably a game but you that you should buy. It's a GBA-style Yo-Yovania.
00:36:57
Speaker
you You're a bat. You play as a bat and your auntie gets cursed and she runs this whole like monopoly and everyone that's in this monopoly like goes over to her and is like, Hey, we're, we've been under your thumb for too long.
00:37:15
Speaker
And, uh, she, they curse her and the bat Pippet throws his yo-yo into the curse beam. And so she gets, transfer her soul gets transferred into the yo-yo and now you're spending the rest of the game trying to get her souls back.
00:37:30
Speaker
But, um, and I can only talk about like the first chapter. so The story starts getting pretty good after that because you start realizing that the yeah auntie and even Pippet to that extent aren't necessarily good people.
00:37:45
Speaker
their're Interesting. Pipit for one is ah is a little, little, little asshole. Yeah. Like he he's just a little punk kid trying to show off his yo-yo moves and gets thrown into this.
00:37:58
Speaker
So he'd rather be doing anything else than this. But because, because he's found a way, it's so cute because, because he finds a way to, um,
00:38:08
Speaker
connect it with his yo-yo, his addiction to yo-yoing, ah he's okay with the adventure. You know, think it's funny it's like, yeah. And, oh, the puzzles are challenging. the The moves you get are really cool.
00:38:22
Speaker
um It's a tough game, but I think it's a very approachable game in that same breath. um The map is fun to navigate. i don't know. If you're looking for something indie to play,
00:38:37
Speaker
this summer to, to start, to start your June off. Um, I, I think that anybody who buys Pip Estrello will have a good, good time with it from, and that's just my, my opinions after chapter one.
00:38:51
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah. Um, expect my full review next week. Ooh. find that on noisy pixel yeah fun fun fucking game i'm very happy to be playing it oh yeah um anyway ah oh and uh shrie yoshida made it his banner on twitter which also validates yeah he also validates my love for the brazilian team uh um dodgeball academia or whatever they they're they developed that game
00:39:26
Speaker
Yeah, they developed that game. So this is their second game. like um Yeah. PM Studios Publishing. Good, good group all around. And that's it. 40 minutes. We're pretty good.
00:39:40
Speaker
We are pretty good. we We always, you know, we show up, we do it properly with good timing. o ah Splendid. Compliment us in the comments. yeah Yeah, yeah, Let us know how great we are in the comments. Yeah.
Episode Wrap-up and Teaser
00:39:55
Speaker
um
00:39:58
Speaker
I'll see you next week, Spencer. I'll see you then. And I'll see all of you then too. Ooh, I think we're going to do yay or nay next week. Ooh, it's been a while. It's been a while.
00:40:09
Speaker
Get excited, nerds. Get excited for that yay or nay. All right, bye. Bye, everyone.
00:40:29
Speaker
What is it, Excel?